Less Than a Day
by OPYKJ
Summary: She did not want him to be there. He did not want her to be alone. Post Endgame.
1. Chapter 1

My great thanks again to Mia Cooper for her incisive comments. Having a great beta makes all the difference.

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

Kolopak Jnr stepped off the private transporter and walked to the kitchen, the light strips following his footsteps along the glass-wrapped corridor. Outside, tendrils of mist floated upwards from the barren frozen grounds surrounding the Indiana house.

Once upon a time he had run through those same wintry fields with little more than a shirt and pants on, having inherited the Janeway gene for loving the cold weather. Now he longed for lazy summer days to warm his aching bones. Getting old, he told himself.

 _It is with profound sadness…_

He took the teapot off the shelf before choosing one of his father's favourite blends. Waiting for the water to boil on the old-fashioned stove, he slid his hand over the kitchen top. Decades ago, his dad had strode through the corn field, his young son and daughter proudly carrying a laser tape measure. A couple of years prior, a ferocious storm had felled some of the older trees and Chakotay had chosen the largest one for his next carpentry project.

 _…that Dr Kolopak Janeway Jnr and Captain Elizabeth Janeway-Paris (Ret)..._

Together, they had counted the growth rings on the stump anchored in the fertile soil.

The giant White oak had seen the first footsteps on the moon, Chakotay had told Kol and Liz, showing them the dark coloured centre. His father's fingers had stopped a little further out – Earth's manned mission to Mars. Three hand spans towards the rim, Cochrane had soared to the heavens in his inaugural warp flight. The first contact between humans and an alien race coming from the stars had taken place the very same day.

It was therefore fitting, Chakotay had said, his eyes smiling, that the tree would end its days in the house of the first Starfleet captain to explore the Delta quadrant.

Liz had blabbered the whole way home about piloting a spaceship one day. Chakotay had ruffled her raven black hair, but said nothing. Four years older than his sister, Kolopak already knew of his father's weariness about space missions.

 _...announce the death..._

It had been the middle of the night when Kol had left Starfleet Medical and the sun was not up yet, three time zones to the East. The vast house was silent although he knew his father would be awake, even at this ungodly hour when thoughts take on a life of their own, unconstrained, unbidden – another family trait which had come down to him.

 _...of Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Ret.)..._

Kolopak leaned over the counter, his hands flat on the hard worn timber. Seventy years of coffee spills and hot cups had marked the wood as deeply as five hundred years of life under the sky. Now, another giant had fallen and the memories of the woman surrounded him everywhere he looked, like the ripples of age drawn on the old timber.

 _…who passed away peacefully at Starfleet Medical Hospital, San Francisco, Earth..._

Over the next few days would come duties to fulfil, customs to observe. He had not sent the death notice out yet. He had to tell Chakotay before the world was to know. Despite the family lore handed down from kids to grand-kids, neither of his parents were telepathic. His father was not yet aware that his eighty year-old marriage had come to a sudden end.

He bent his head _. Mom would want me to be there for Dad. There'll be time later to grieve for her._

 _...yesterday evening._

A couple of cups joined the pot on a tray. He walked up the stairs leading to the wing set aside for his parents. The study was bathed in shadows, but a thin light beam showed underneath the bedroom door.

"Father." Kolopak put the tray on the bed side table closest to the door.

Chakotay opened his eyes. "Hello, son."

Kolopak helped rearrange the pillows behind his father's back, then handed him the cup of tea. He brought the corner chair nearer the bed, and sat, facing the older man.

"It's Mom," he said. From the look on Chakotay's face, there was nothing more to be said, but Kolopak stammered forward nevertheless. "An hour ago. Just before midnight."

Chakotay put his cup down with an unsteady hand, tea pooling in the saucer. Something flashed in his eyes, so brief Kol would have missed it if it had not been for the light of the bed lamp falling on the old man's face.

He thought what he had seen in that glance was acceptance. After all, Chakotay had prepared all his life – as Starfleet officers must – for that moment when death would reach out and take what it wanted. Those who had been lost for seven long years in a savage part of the galaxy had learnt that fact more than most.

He had been so wrong.

Kolopak lifted the tray aside, making no comment. His father's physical health had rallied in the past six months, but he was tired, more forgetful of events and people around him as the days wore on, a mere shadow of the legend who had taken Voyager's reins after its return to Federation space. Truth be told, Kol feared for the man in front of him, without his soul mate at his side. He knew from bitter experience how wrenching such a loss was.

"Were you with her?" His father's voice was gritty, hardly more than a whisper.

"No, I'd gone home. She was recovering well from the operation. Then the Doctor commed me saying her blood pressure had dropped. By the time I arrived at Starfleet Medical, it was too late."

He lowered his head. "I'm sorry. I should have stayed."

Chakotay reached for his son's hand, his grip surprisingly strong. "I should have been the one to be there."

"The Doctor said it was too soon for you to be travelling. The infection—"

"The same Doctor who said the operation was routine and that she would be back tomorrow."

Chakotay leaned back against the bed head. "And now she's gone."

His short breaths filled the room, carving time into small broken pieces.

An owl hooted softly outside, breaking the silence.

"When she commed me yesterday morning, she said it was the first time she'd spent more than a day away from me for many years, but she did not feel alone. It reminded her of when she was on Voyager, with me so far and yet so close," Chakotay said, a small smile showing.

Kolopak got up and walked to the window, watching the suddenly blurry sky growing lighter. He cleared his throat and talked to the fields outside.

"I contacted Liz on my way here. She'll tell the kids and those within transporter range will be here soon."

He waited a few seconds before turning away from the pink dawn. "Do you want me to comm Uncle Harry?"

"Harry... He'll be... No. It's always been our responsibility to break such news. I'll do it."

Kolopak simply nodded. He had never quite grasped the power that bound his parents to Voyager's crew. When he was a child, the house had regularly overflowed with former crew members and their families coming for picnics and barbecues, or just for a lengthy chat with their former Captain and First Officer. Everybody had been an uncle or an auntie to him and his sister in those early years. But the village that had brought him up had felt more and more constrictive, as if he owed it to them to follow in his parents' footsteps in return for their unfailing loyalty.

While Liz had embraced a Starfleet career, he had rebelled, eliciting a well-known smirk from his mother and patient smiles from his dad. Trying to make his own future without the Janeway name provoking never-ending questions about how it was to live in the shadows of the famous command team, he had taken refuge in the academic world. Away from Starfleet and starships, he had found peace and a measure of well-deserved recognition, ever feeling like a mere bystander to the Voyager legend.

He had wondered many times since why he had ever tried to avoid his legacy in the first place.

"You should go and prepare the rooms. I'll be OK."

Kolopak picked up the tray. The tediousness of normal life was inescapable.

"Call me if you want anything. I'll ask the Doctor to come and see you, if you don't mind."

The sun was just showing through the dark trunks hedging the fields, the thin winter rays falling on the empty bed space where his mother used to sleep, by her husband's side.

Kolopak glanced back before closing the door behind him. Chakotay's hand was gripping the bare sheet, his shoulders shaking silently.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 _Father._

 _Chakotay, my son. What dwells in your mind?_

 _Kathryn is gone._

 _Not from your heart, she is not._

 _She's gone from the living, Father. She's gone from my life_ _._

 _But there is a way to reach her, isn't there?_

 _She's told you?_

 _A long time ago. She asked if the spirit world would be offended. I said the spirits could not deny her anything if her thoughts were true. She laughed and thanked me._

 _She never said she talked to you about it._

 _Chakotay my son, you think too much at times. What is it you want to ask?_

 _Should I take that path? I don't want her to be alone._

 _You are an old man now, older than I ever was, older than my fathers before me, and their fathers. Your heart should know by now what is right._

 _If... If I take that path, will I see you there?_

 _That I cannot say. Kathryn said it would be something new, never explored before. Let her be your guide, son. She will lead you well. And tell her Kolopak is proud to have her as his daughter._

 _###_

The Doctor let himself in. "Captain."

He sat down with a sigh. The condition of his first patient of the day had not changed markedly since he had last seen him, but he wondered what the next few weeks would bring.

Born of necessity, the unshakeable bond between the two human beings he had had the privilege to serve preceded their being married. His flawless memories of Voyager's journey recalled days and nights of one waiting at the bed side of the other lying broken and maimed, inches from death. Life in space could be short and brutal, but somehow those two had always pulled through. Sometimes, he suspected, despite rather than because of his own efforts.

This time, though...

"I am so sorry Captain. It was a simple medical procedure. I expected the Admiral to fully recover."

Chakotay's hands lied pale and bony on the blanket covering his legs. "She was tired. A hundred and twenty-six years is a long life, Doctor. The anniversary of B'Elanna and Miral's deaths reminded her of how much time had passed, and how many people we've lost. She took it hard."

The EMH thought Chakotay was trying too hard to forget the depth of his own grief over the years.

The warp core accident which had critically injured the two Paris women had put a cloud over the Voyager reunions that followed. A few years later and an apparently fit and healthy Tom Paris had died of an undiagnosed heart problem. Ayala and Neelix had been next, joining an ever growing list of names on the ship call roll. Eight decades after Voyager had triumphantly arrived back home, the ranks of its crew was thinning fast.

The Doctor felt the equivalent of a blockage in his throat. He quickly re-formatted a couple of sub-routines. "The Admiral used the headset."

He owed her too much not to tell her husband. He wasn't sure if Chakotay would have asked. It had not escaped the EMH that only the Admiral and a few of the crew members, Commander Torres included, had ever met him to discuss the technicalities of the project. He had quickly realised her idea was contentious, even within the former command team.

A smile appeared on Chakotay's lips, spreading to his eyes. "She believed so hard in it. I hope she found it worthwhile."

There was nothing the Doctor could say. It was the nature of the Admiral's project that nobody would know if it worked or not until it was too late to tell.

He noticed some colour coming back to Chakotay's cheeks. The man's voice was also firmer. Whatever his personal reservations about the Admiral's decision, the Doctor welcomed the visible improvement to the Captain's well being.

After all, he was a doctor, not a philosopher. Nor a counsellor, he regretted. There were only so many new sub-routines that could be added to one's programming without losing it all to the quirks of quantum effects. Or so had said B'Elanna Torres, and he'd trusted her.

A knock on the door heralded the arrival of the Janeway-Paris clan and the Doctor took his leave. Outside of the room, he welcomed the dozen kids and grand-kids many of whom he had helped deliver in a world which belonged to them now. They had brought the next generations with them, subdued and with tears in their eyes. Only the youngest ones were oblivious to the sombre mood and slept in their parents' arms.

###

William and Charlie ran around in the garden, chasing each other. Ayaqua was too young yet, but Kol was sure it wouldn't be long before she joined them. She was holding with all her might onto a very patient and very old setter walking slowly in a circle, a descendant many times removed of the dog which had helped Kol take his first steps.

"How are my grand-kids going?"

Kolopak turned away from the window of the study. "Noisy and full of energy. And they are your great-great grand kids, Dad," he corrected.

"Don't remind me," Chakotay grumbled.

Kol sat besides Liz. Memories of Voyager's journey in the Delta Quadrant and that of Chakotay's short time as its captain crowded the shelves around the room. A holographic model of the ship sat inside a small cube serving as paper weight on the desk, an image of the real thing hanging in space high above Earth, a nacelle away from the equally venerable Enterprise E.

Chakotay manoeuvred his mobility chair closer to his two children.

"I viewed your mother's will this morning, and you can do the same later on. But first, she wanted to tell you about a project she'd been working on and off for the past decades. She never felt she could discuss it with you as long as I disagreed with it, but now is the right time."

He smiled, sure of the love of his wife, then his eyes changed, ancient and full of compassion. "Somehow, I never thought that she'll be the first to... Anyway, it's better if she tells you herself."

He turned the screen on.

Kathryn's grey hair caught the sunlight pouring through the window at her side. Chakotay's breath hitched. He had forgotten how stunning she had looked well into her seventies, although the strength of her blue gaze had never withered.

 _It will soon be Voyager's 30_ _th_ _anniversary and the whole family is getting ready to_ _go_ _to Starfleet HQ for the ceremony. A bittersweet reunion as some of our former crew members will not be there with us. Time is harrying us._

Chakotay closed his eyes, hardly listening. He had had mixed feelings about the project from the start. In his mind, there had been that nagging thought that his Kathryn's tinkering smacked too much of another woman of the same name playing with time, ultimately to remedy the same wrong. He'd never said anything, knowing too well his wife's intrinsic dislike of her older self's methods. The circumstances were different, the timelines well and truly divergent eight decades down the track. And yet, the two women had shared more than a name and striking grey hair. He recognised too well the similar will to bend all that stood in their paths, and the almost god-like righteousness that compelled them.

 _Some may think of the Voyager II project as a denial of death, cheating on its everlasting finality, and by doing that, demeaning life itself. Others may even call it an abomination, depending on their beliefs._

Chakotay winced. Tuvok had not said so in so many words, but Kathryn had been highly disappointed when her long-life friend had politely refused to be a part of the project.

Seven had been much more direct.

 _The program which sustains this framework cannot be run outside of Voyager's main computer environment for technical reasons. We had to cap it to a finite number of participants to avoid cascading failures due to the antiquity of the system. I therefore decided to limit its access to Voyager's former crew members only. A few of them have already told me that they will not participate_ _because of this constraint_ _._

Sam Wildman had returned the headset. He was not sure about Naomi, though. It had been a long time since he had seen the first child to be born on the ship. Well, she was hardly a child anymore. Not that much older than Kol, actually. How quickly life had gone that even the young ones had grown old too.

 _We will be dead, that is certain, but our minds will live. Can a mind live without a living body? I have had many discussions on that subject with_ _the_ _Doctor. His awareness seems to indicate that thoughts are not bound to_ _a_ _living_ _brain_ _. Maybe it is time and experiences that help build a truly aware conscience._ _What sustains it after death may be another matter._

 _A hologram may not be the best judge of what we are attempting to do_ _, though_ _. And frankly,_ her gaze got colder, _I don't care._

Kolopak pushed his hand through his thinning hair. Minds stuck in a computer forever? He could not believe his mother would have anything to do with what sounded like a cold and dreary future.

Early in his academic life, he'd listened to talks on the latest bio-neural computer brains set to replace flesh and blood crews on freight space lines. His job had been to research the sociological impacts of such artificial minds, but fear of the Borg hive mind was still too fresh and the project had been shelved. To his knowledge it had never been revived and for good reasons in his opinion. What his mother was telling him from across the grave sounded ten times worse.

He stopped the recording. "What has Starfleet got to say?" he asked with contempt in his voice.

"Since when do you worry about what Starfleet thinks, Kol?" Liz was looking at him with that crooked smile.

"Don't tell me you approve of such, such..."

"Such what?" she retorted. "You've never captained a ship. You've got no idea what bonds a crew together."

Chakotay smiled. Now that he'd made his decision, he was beginning to enjoy himself. Liz in full flight was a sight to behold. The fights between daughter and mother had shaken the house, laying the foundations for when Liz had decided to marry Miral's brother. The combination of the Janeway, Torres and Paris traits had proven fiery and long-lasting, with three generations sporting dark hair, forehead ridges and temperaments to match.

"Let's see what Mom has to say before you get on your high horse."

Liz waved at the screen and the recording started again.

Kathryn was grinning. _This project has been undertaken without the knowledge of Starfleet and I will ask you to respect our wish to keep them out of it. I have dedicated my life to that organisation and I know better than most its strengths but also its weaknesses_ _, and its blind spots_ _. I am sure, Commander Janeway, that you will understand me._

"Told you, Kol."

 _Whatever your thinking, please believe me in saying that whether the project works or not matters little. My life is fulfilled. Chakotay has given me two marvellous children and in turn you have brought more into the fold. That, Kolopak, Liz, is more than I thought possible when I stranded my ship and crew so far from home._

 _The future is in your hands and that of your children. Make it great or quiet, as you feel your way, but live life to the fore._

The screen went blank. Liz sniffled, then embraced her father. The three together watched the sunset through the large window, talking about Kathryn until the stars appeared.

###

 _You came._

 _Even a day without you was more than I could bear._

 _Will you forgive me? I couldn't let you be there with me, listening to my_ _breaths until they were no more. I couldn't do that again to you. It was half a galaxy away, but I still remember your pain and despair._

 _That's was the hardest part of it all, that you died alone._

 _But you are with me now. I was hoping you wouldn't take too long. Was that a selfish thought?_

 _It was, and there's nothing wrong with it. You deserve to be selfish, my love._

 _###_

Kolopak sat at the study desk. He erased the early obituary he had composed the previous morning.

He started to type, not trusting his voice.

 _It is with profound sadness that we announce the_ _deaths of Admiral Janeway and Captain Chakotay who passed away peacefully less than a day apart._

 _Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Ret)_

 _20 May 2335 – 1 February 2460_

 _Captain Chakotay (Ret)_

 _16 July 2334 – 2 February 2460_

 _May they find each other again._

The comm chimed.

"Kol. Something... something amazing has happened."

He watched his sister cry and laugh at the same time. "What happened?.. Liz? Where are you?"

"I'm still at Starfleet headquarters. I was getting to the transporter hub to come back home after talking to the Admiralty about the ceremony for Mom and Dad. They even sent a Rear Admiral after me..."

How had her crew ever been able to cope with all her verbiage?

"Liz. Talk to me."

"You won't believe this..."

Kol tapped his fingers on the desk.

"It's Voyager. It's gone. Vanished. One moment it was there in its cradle near the Enterprise, the next minute, it's not there anymore."

He glanced at the paper weight. The cube was lifeless and empty.

"Do you think...?"

Kol smiled. "What else could it be, Liz? What else?"

"What's Starfleet going to do? They're bound to make the connection."

Kol rolled his eyes. Now, she was asking him how to handle bloody Starfleet.

"And?" he said. "We'll just have to keep our mouths shut. That's why it was only ever Voyager's crew and nobody else, Liz, not even us. Starfleet can't touch them."

"They'll be together," Liz said with awe in her voice.

Kolopak was still smiling when he shut the communication down. He quickly deleted the last line he had written, and typed.

 _They are together, as always._

 _###_

"Captain on the bridge."

"Where to, Captain?"

"I'll defer to the Admiral."

"Mister Paris, set a course for the unknown, somewhere out there."

* * *

 _End notes :_

 _This fanfic can be considered as a prequel to another of my stories,_ The Last Voyager,

 _I followed The Star Trek Annotated TimeIine, which sets Chakotay's birth year but does not detail the day and month. So I invented them._

 _Finally, the story was inspired by a real life event. Google_ Hogg miracle Lancelot _to access the article published mid-June this year in The Weekend Australian Magazine. Read and wonder._


End file.
